Tall and awesome

On my walk yesterday, I looked towards the city centre from Dawidy and was stunned to see a blazing tower on the horizon. So I scrambled up onto the railway embankment to get a better look - my God! My first reaction was that this is something akin to the Grenfell Towers tragedy in London in June 2017, when 72 people died. I whipped out my 70-300mm lens and zoomed in - no smoke above it, no smoke - no fire. So what was it?

A live railway line is not the place for pondering such questions. I did so at home, posting the photo on Skyscraper City, the very best resource for anything to do with Poland's built environment. 

[It's a global site, but Poland has one of the most active Skyscraper City communities in the world, with more posts and page views than Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK all put together!]

Within minutes, I had my answer - that 'flaming tower' is the Warsaw Spire. Yes indeed. Such was the angle of the sun that the south-west facing glass reflected it so awesomely. It was quite a sunset, too... (turn through 180 degrees...) On the horizon, the Raszyn radio mast (a misnomer, as it's in Łazy, 9km from Raszyn. When completed in 1962, it was the second-tallest structure in the world and the tallest in Europe. And 93m miles beyond, the sun. Shining onto Warsaw's Spire.

Left: my father and my son in front of the Spire, 31 July 2019. The Spire has two curved glass 'walls', and between them a vertical row of windows - and it was these that reflected that sunset yesterday. 

One Skyscraper City commentator remarked that the Spire from this angle looks like a frankfurter between two hot-dog buns; another commentator reminded us of the time that sunlight reflecting off the mirrored roof above the entrance was strong enough to set fire to two motorcycles parked outside. 

Today's walk took place on a heavily overcast day, but at least it didn't rain - or as had been forecast - it didn't snow. A standard 10,000 paces to Nowa Iwiczna and back, and on the way, a snap of the electricity pylons marching through Zgorzała and Nowa Wola on their way to Piaseczno and Konstancin. These are high-tension M52 pylons (!) carrying 220kV cables all the way from the coal-fired Kozienice power station. Standard height, 40m.

One development worthy of note - ulica Gogolińska, which runs parallel to the railway line on the west side, is currently asphalted only as far as Warsaw's border, from there on it's a muddy dirt track that serves the housing estates like the ones above. Today I saw evidence that asphalt is currently being extended southwards towards Nowa Iwiczna. Good news for local residents!

Bonus picture: domesticated cat helps out around the house.

This time five years ago:

Catesby Tunnel in the 1980s

This time seven years ago:
Crumbling King Coal, Katowice

This time eight years ago:
Street cries of Old Poland

This time nine years ago:
The gorgeousness of Warsaw at dusk

This time ten years ago:
I'm so glad I'm living in Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
Candid photography

This time 12 years ago:
Archival photos of Jeziorki's Rampa in action

This time 13 years ago:
Red sky in the morning...